. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. March 16 1905 THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 205 ing an apple order for a A No. 1 fruit, I could scarcely find a perfect Tolman Sweet. They were covered with little punctures—small, black specks. These trees are in the bee-yard. None of our other varieties showed these spots. I remembered noticing^ bees crawling over apples and tap, tapping on the skin with their tails, and when I saw these spots it seemed as if they might have punched the holes with their stingers, and then turned around and licked up the nectar. A friendly bee keeper in Saratoga, to whom
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. March 16 1905 THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 205 ing an apple order for a A No. 1 fruit, I could scarcely find a perfect Tolman Sweet. They were covered with little punctures—small, black specks. These trees are in the bee-yard. None of our other varieties showed these spots. I remembered noticing^ bees crawling over apples and tap, tapping on the skin with their tails, and when I saw these spots it seemed as if they might have punched the holes with their stingers, and then turned around and licked up the nectar. A friendly bee keeper in Saratoga, to whom I confided my suspicions, wrote me that she had a similar experi- ence in her orchard, only more so. Her fruit was badly punctured, and the bees were so thick on her windfalls that they drove her away when she tried to gather the fruit. Our Farmers' Institute sent us last week, among other speakers, Prof. Stewart, of the Geneva Station, whose specialty is the diseases of fruit, es- pecially apples and trees. I privately told him my tale, and gave him two sample apples, which he took away, and after careful testing will report to me results, which he expects will simply show whether the defects in the apples are due to disease or the sting of an insect. Usually, YOU know, when the apples are growing mellow, the buckwheat bloom is at its best, and after the frost the bees take only short flights at about noon. At that time in the fall we gather our app'es. This is the first fall, in my 10 years' experience here, that we have had so early a frost fol- lowed by such beautiful weather, and if my surmises are correct, this may account for the experience. I will send you Prof. Stewart's re- port as soon as it is received. (Miss) Frances E. Wheeler. Clinton Co., N. Y. That report of Prof. Stewart will be awaited wiih much interest. But, surely, the finding will not be that the bees had any hand (or sting) in punc- turing the fruit. At one time Rev. W. F. Clarke gravely asserted that
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